


(and they were roommates) oh my god, they were roommates

by monstermash



Series: Dragon Age AU's [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Modern Thedas, a lot of the characters are only mentioned or are there briefly, am i ever gonna finish this? we'll see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 08:44:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14053230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monstermash/pseuds/monstermash
Summary: i've been sitting on this fic for a while lmaoidk if i'll ever finish it as it is now. i'll probably rewrite it later or something we'll seeso here's a modern thedas au w/ little to no editing. (u can't see it but i'm jazz handing away to go work on other stuff)





	(and they were roommates) oh my god, they were roommates

**Author's Note:**

> i've been sitting on this fic for a while lmao
> 
> idk if i'll ever finish it as it is now. i'll probably rewrite it later or something we'll see
> 
> so here's a modern thedas au w/ little to no editing. (u can't see it but i'm jazz handing away to go work on other stuff)

Okay, so he’d somehow managed to really mess up setting up the new (actually very old, he got it for 3 sovereigns from the pawn shop on the corner) console because all of the wires were now horribly tangled with any hope of untangling them quickly diminishing. He tried taking his time and try to carefully untangle the wires, but somehow that just made it worse, and then he tried just pulling the damn things apart but then his hand got caught up in it somehow so he ended up resorting to using scissors to cut away most of the wires to free his hand.

Texting Atuan for help really should have been his first plan of action, but Alistair would be the first to admit that his best ideas didn’t always come before the bad ones.

“How did you get one wire knotted 10 times by itself? The cord shouldn’t even be long enough to do that,” Atuan says with impressed horror from where he’s sitting on the floor, leaning back against the couch, trying to figure out how he could possibly save this mess. Alistair groans from where he’s sprawled out on the couch, dragging his hands down his face.

“I honestly don’t know. It was fine when I bought it and it was fine the entire way back here, but as soon as I took it out of the box the wires went wild and swooping and it was all downhill from there.”

When Atuan holds up the ends where the wires were severed from the gaming console he gives up trying to figure the mess out.

“I don’t think you’ll be getting your money back. And I’m pretty sure I can’t fix this, short of making a bargain with a demon.”

“I just wanted to play Lizard Centennial 2 before work tonight. That’s not too much to ask, is it?”

Atuan sits up and turns around, dropping a quick kiss on Alistair’s bicep, and gives his friend a sympathetic look.

“Wanna go get some of that fancy Orlesian cheese you love so much?”

_“Please.”_

\---

Alistair Theirin and Atuan Mahariel met when the Dalish elf left his clan to strike out on his own in Denerim. 

To be more specific, they met when Duncan hired Atuan to replace a bartender (Alistair can’t remember the name; Jo-something. Joel? Jowan?) who had suddenly quit on them. Alistair never got the specific details on how Duncan and Atuan met, but it had something to do with Duncan saving the elf’s life.

He remembers that night, when Duncan first brought Atuan to The Warden’s Rest.

Neither had been a pretty sight (okay, well, that’s a lie. Atuan was always pretty, even when he looks like he went ten rounds with a high dragon) and they were lucky that it had been a slow night at the bar, although most of their customers probably wouldn’t have paid any mind. Duncan asked Alistair to take Atuan into the back and help him clean up while Duncan went about closing up the bar early.

“So,” Alistair asked as he wiped a damp cloth over the angry looking cut on the elf’s cheek, “How’d you and Duncan meet? Did he rescue you from the treacherous clutches of an Antivan dowager?”

Atuan laughed then winced when it tugged at his sore ribs the wrong way.

“Something like that,” he said with a smile. “Might have been an Orlesian Duchess too. Or you know, a couple of back alley thugs. Hard to tell the difference sometimes.”

“Ah, yes. I tend to confuse Orlesian nobility with criminals all the time too. Practically the same thing,” Alistair replied as he put the cloth down and instead pressed a small pack of ice against Atuan’s right eye that had begun to swell and the bruises were really beginning to show through. “You know, one good thing about alley fights in Denerim is how they bring people together.”

The bruised elf sitting on the counter in front of Alistiar gave him a wry grin.

“I know exactly what you mean.”

\---

He wakes feeling like a grimy diner floor, head muzzy and mouth drier than the Hissing Wastes. Alistair winces when he opens his eyes and the too bright morning light makes his head sting. Turning over so that he’s facing the back of the too soft couch (they were drinking at Leliana’s last night he remembers vaguely. It explains why the couch is too soft and velvety) proves to be difficult due to the weight that’s draped on top of him which groans as it’s shifted and is now between the back of the couch and Alistair.

Cracking open an eye he sees the top of wild white hair and pointed ears; Atuan. Sighing and tangling their legs together once more Alistair runs his fingers through the white hair, soothing a grumbling and hungover Atuan.

Being best friends and roommates with the elf has allowed Alistair to learn that while Atuan is a handsy individual normally, the presence of alcohol in his system magnifies that trait and that Atuan always ends up curled up with Alistair (for as much as he protests he really doesn’t mind, likes it in fact. Atuan knows this too. Alistair tries not to think too much about what that means, what that says about him, about _them_ ).

Once Atuan drops back into sleep he follows not long after.

\---

Atuan likes to wear Alistair’s shirts even though they’re too big on him (Alistair likes it too. The one time he had admitted it his face turned pink and then he was stumbling over his words). He likes it whenever Alistair offers him his jacket when winter hits Denerim and Atuan has forgotten his own again.

“Remind me again why we’re going to The Crossroads?”

“Because Morrigan asked us to watch Kieran while she and Amell take care of some business. Well, she asked me,” Atuan says as he shrugs on Alistair’s jacket as they continue down the street. 

He smiles wryly at Alistair’s look of disgust at the mention of Morrigan.

“I still don’t know how Daylen can stand to be around her for more than two minutes without tearing his hair out. I know I certainly want to tear my own hair out whenever I’m in the same room as her.”

Atuan grins as he knocks their shoulders together.

“That’s because – ” Atuan starts, but stops when he puts his hands in the jacket pockets, brows scrunching in confusion as he pulls out what was left in the pocket. “What is this?”

“Cheese.”

He stops dead in his tracks, a pained look on his face as he looks at the cheese stick in his hand then directs that look at Alistair. Atuan takes a deep breath before asking, _“Why?”_

This time Alistair gives _him_ a look.

“To eat when I’m hungry?”

“I love that you’re looking at me like _I’m_ the crazy one, like having a stick of cheese in your pocket is normal.” Atuan looks at the cheese stick again. “It’s not even in a wrapper! It’s just a stick of cheese covered in lint!”

“The middle part is still good,” Alistair says as he takes it from the elf’s grasp.

“Oh Creators, don’t _eat_ it.”

“I don’t know what you mean, I suddenly can’t hear,” he says as he stuffs it into his mouth and continues walking.

“... I don’t think I want to wear your jacket anymore if you’re going to keep pocket cheese in it.”

Alistair’s head whips around, eyes wide with… something, as he swallows the cheese down.

“Okay, no more pocket cheese.” 

\---

“Atuan, please?”

“You said Valora was going to be there, right? So you don’t need me to go,” Atuan says from where he’s chopping up vegetables in their tiny kitchen.

“She is, but she’s also bringing Leliana and Neria, who I remind you are her girlfriends, so I don’t want to be third wheeling it. Especially at a Satinalia party with a bunch of nobles.”

“Then don’t go if you really don’t want to?”

“I don’t want to, but this is the only time I get to see my brother and Teagan.”

Atuan can already tell he’s going to give in; he knows how important Cailan and Teagan are to Alistair, how rare it is for him to see those two - especially his own brother - without drawing too much suspicion. He doesn’t want to go for the same reason Alistair doesn’t; the nobles at this party will undoubtedly talk shit about them behind their backs, though for different reasons.

Well at least they’ll be in it together.

He sighs.

“Alright,” he says as he gently head-butts the human’s shoulder. “But this means you’re coming with me to visit my clan for Summerday then.”

Alistair chuckles as he wraps an arm around the elf and pressing his mouth against the crown of Atuan’s head. “Thank you. I mean it.”

\---

“So,” Valora says as she sidles up to Alistair where he is staying as far away from the main crowd of people as he possibly could. “I see you brought Mahariel as your plus one. Did you finally work up the courage?”

“The courage for what?”

Valora rolls her eyes as she takes a sip of her drink. “The courage to tell him that you’re arse over tea kettle in love with him. It’s pretty obvious about what you both feel for each other.”

“What? No, I –”

“Oh please, spare me the denial, Alistair,” she says, leveling him with a look. “We’ve known each other since we were in diapers. I’ve seen how you look at him like he hung the stars and moons, and he looks at you the same way.”

Alistair is saved from having to answer when Atuan finally returns albeit with a bewildered look on his face.

“Some woman just came up to me and told me to try the gouda and I asked _‘is it firm?’_ and she said _‘yes, I wouldn’t have anything less’_ and we both threw our heads back and laughed and I’m still not sure why,” Atuan says as he hands Alistair a drink. “Are all humans this obsessed with cheese? I thought that was just Alistair.”

Valora snorts as Alistair squawks indignantly. 

“It’s a universal rule that nobility in general has a thing for cheese, but they’re nowhere near Alistair’s league,” Valora laughs, green eyes dancing with mirth when Alistair punches her arm good naturedly. “Right, well I’m going to go find my girlfriends, you boys try not to get into too much trouble.”

With one last pointed look at Alistair, smirk growing on her lips, she disappears into the vast ocean of people.

\---

Atuan wakes up to a wall of heat plastered to his back and a nose pressed against the nape of his neck. Looking over his shoulder with bleary eyes reveals his mystery bedmate as Alistair. That’s right, the heating in their building broke down last night and they’d only had the one space heater stashed away in the coat closet.

**Author's Note:**

> haha, sorry for the abrupt ending, that's just where i stopped and i haven't picked it back up.
> 
> the pocket cheese thing comes from [here](http://mookie000.tumblr.com/post/158415320437/i-worked-on-a-doujin-for-two-weeks-straight-and)
> 
> (i saw it and i was immediately like "that's alistair." if he had pockets in Origins u can't tell me he wouldn't absolutely do that)
> 
> as for the "is the gouda firm?" it came from tumblr, but i can't find the link for it, but if you've seen it u'll know


End file.
